On April 23, 2005, the Memorial opened the special exhibit, Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese Internment Camps in the Philippines, 1941-1945. This exhibits recounts the poignant story of the men, women and children who lived through one of the darkest periods of history and honors them and the soldiers and civilians who saved them.
The exhibition, on display through February 28, 2006, examines the Philippines before the Japanese invasion and what characterized life for both the native Filipinos and the foreign-born residents. Focusing on the three major internment camps, Santo Tomás, Los Baños and Baguio, the exhibition offers insight into the internees’ initial contact with their captors and their daily lives during confinement.